Five rank and file attached to Captain Tylden, R.E., employed surveying in the territory of the chief Mapassa, being interrupted in the duty, were now necessarily occupied in adopting expedients for protection. Early in the year they assisted the inhabitants of Whittlesea in strengthening their houses against attack, and in converting the village into a strong defensible position. Afterwards they constructed a small musket-proof redoubt of dry stones, twelve feet square, with walls three feet thick and seven high, round their own camp, to protect the field guns, military stores, and equipment. The waggons were also brought into requisition, and stone walls were built up under them to render them defensible. By the evening of the second day everything was completed. Into this miserable post the Captain with his five sappers, one officer, a sergeant of police and his wife and four children, took refuge. The sappers worked so hard during the day that the Captain had to take his turn at sentry during the night.[[61]] Soon after these precautionary services, repeated actions took place between the garrison with the levied troops raised by Captain Tylden, and the neighbouring tribes, in every one of which, though attacked by an immensely-superior force, the little band beat off their assailants with severe loss, and gained for it the admiration and thanks of the General commanding-in-chief. The desperation and difficulties of their isolation, coupled with the paucity of their numbers, whetted their spirit of enterprise, and though their endurance and heroism might be equalled, they could never be excelled. In all the operations at Whittlesea, and in the actions with the tribes at adjacent places, as many of the few sappers as could be spared from the redoubt and the village were engaged, who participated with credit in the frequent desperate attacks, exceeding twenty in number, which it fell to the good fortune of Captain Tylden to repel, and to his strategical tact and prowess to win.
Sergeant John Poole accompanied a patrol of fifteen mounted men on the 18th February, under Ensign Gill of the Cape mounted rifles, in pursuit of Kaffirs. Near Grass Kop Tower the spoor of cattle was discovered and followed up to within sight of Double Drift, where some cattle were seen in charge of about twenty of the enemy. Taking at once to the bush, half the detachment advanced, unperceived, until within a few yards of the kraal, where the Kaffirs fought for a short time, and then fled to the river. In crossing the stream, sergeant Poole shot one of the rebel Kaffir police, and one of the two other Kaffirs who were killed on the occasion. In this gallant affair the patrol captured 106 head of cattle, 2 guns, 3 horses, &c., and received the approbation of Sir Harry Smith. Sergeant Poole was second in command of the party.
One sergeant and twenty rank and file were attached, on the 28th March, to a patrol of 900 men under Major Wilmot, R.A., and assisted in the devastation of Seyolo’s country until the 31st March. With a detachment of the 6th regiment the sappers remained in charge of the pack-horses and ammunition, and when attacked, vigorously dispersed the enemy. Private George Wilson killed two Kaffirs in this skirmish, and private Charles Jarvis was wounded, the ball striking the fore-finger and thumb, and lodging in the stock of his carbine.
Two rank and file under Lieutenant Jesse, R.E., were present in the field with Major-General Somerset’s division from the 27th March to 9th April. During this patrol the country was scoured near the old Tyumie Post, Hertzog, Eland’s Post, and the adjacent highlands. The two men were found very useful in repairing the numerous bad drifts through which the guns and waggons had to pass, and in the execution of various incidental services of a professional character.
Sergeant John Poole and one corporal of the corps were present in repulsing a midnight attack on Fort Brown on the 9th April. The enemy consisted of ninety-three Hottentots and fifteen Kaffirs. Robert Dunlop of the corps was the corporal of the guard that night. Hearing the dogs barking more than usual, he went out to see that the sentries were on the alert; but finding the Hottentot posted over the cattle, away from his post in a cloak, he was satisfied of the existence of some traitorous design, and discovered that the enemy was already in the kraal. Giving the alarm, the guard and the military in the fort were quickly assembled, and, under the command of Ensign Gill of the Cape mounted rifles, a sharp action for two hours was maintained, when the enemy was driven from the fort with great loss. The rebels attacked both the tower and the kraal; but from the latter they succeeded in carrying off about 200 head of cattle.[[62]]
From the 20th to the 24th April, four sergeants and seventy-six rank and file under Lieutenant Pasley, R.A., were despatched, with Major Wilmot’s patrol, into the country of Stock and Seyolo. Near the Keiskama the sappers and artillery were placed in ambush to attack the flank and rear of the enemy, while the main body of the patrol engaged the Kaffirs in front. The country through which the division passed was very perilous, consisting of high kloofs and dense bush, broken by precipices. In this march the sappers assisted in destroying about 100 huts, several large gardens of the enemy, and capturing some large granaries of corn. In returning, the detachment, acting with the 6th regiment as skirmishers, kept the enemy at bay and desolated their crops.
On the 30th April, two sergeants and forty-eight rank and file, in burgher jackets, and laden with provisions and the usual war equipment, were engaged with the Kaffirs on the march from the Chumie junction to Fort Wiltshire, and shared in storming and driving them from the heights, where they had occupied a strong position, under cover of the ruins of an old tower and a detached outwork. On the 1st May the party was again in action on the Keiskama; and after five days’ patrolling through the territories of Seyolo, Stock, Sonto, Tola, and Botman, regained King William’s Town on the 2nd May. The troops were reported to have conducted themselves admirably. As the sappers re-entered King William’s Town, Sir Harry Smith welcomed them by saying, with characteristic cordiality, “Well done, my lads; you can both build works and storm them!”
Two sergeants and sixty-nine rank and file, from the 9th to the 13th May, were employed with Major Wilmot’s patrol in the Amatola Mountains. In carrying out the service, the division penetrated difficult and precipitous fastnesses, surprised several of the enemy, and captured some cattle. The sappers were reported to have conducted themselves on this duty with willingness and zeal.
From the 17th to the 22nd May, one sergeant and twenty-one rank and file accompanied a patrol of 800 men under Major Wilmot to Seyolo’s country as far as Fort Peddie, and returned with a convoy of waggons, cattle, &c. A similar patrol of two sergeants and forty-one men scoured the Amatola range, was once engaged with the enemy near Bailie’s Grave, and returned to King William’s Town, after a harassing march of seven days, on the 31st May. One sergeant and twenty men were out with another detachment under Major Wilmot as far as Fort Peddie. The march extended over ten days, and the patrol returned to King’s William’s Town on the 14th June. Again from the 19th to 21st July two sergeants and forty-nine men were detached with Colonel Eyre’s patrol, and assisted in clearing the rebels out of the Buffalo Poorts and Mount Kempt. The marching was very heavy, being for the most part, between eighty and ninety miles, through dense bush.
Under Captain Robertson, R.E., four sergeants and seventy-seven rank and file quitted King William’s Town, with the force, about 400 strong, under Lieutenant-Colonel Burns of the 2nd Queen’s on the 30th August. A body of Kaffirs and Hottentots being at Committy’s Hill, the troops marched on the 1st September from their bivouac at Fort Montgomery Williams by Breakfast Vley to the hill. One division of the sappers was extended as flankers on each side of the advancing column, and upon them a galling fire was soon opened from the bush. The sappers readily charged into it, and where the thicket could be penetrated drove the enemy back; but the denseness of the kloof in rear afforded the Kaffirs much security in retreating. Having ascended the summit of the hill, the sappers faced right about, and made a rapid charge down the hill on the enemy, who were gradually collecting in the bush from which they had just been driven, and inflicted considerable loss upon them. The charge was made with cheering, yet not in a hurry; the men stopped at each kloof and fired volleys into it, and then dashed after the fugitives. “It is most gratifying,” writes Captain Robertson, “to report the admirable and gallant conduct of the men under my command during this conflict which lasted nearly three hours, and of the readiness with which they advanced to carry off the wounded of their own and of other corps under a heavy fire.” The officers of the 2nd Queen’s spoke in terms of high commendation of the spirited manner in which the sappers acted, and of their cheerfulness in obeying their officers. Private James Murray behaved with great courage in exciting the men both of the 2nd and his own corps to follow him. Running forward like one whose life depended on the action of the moment, he was followed by several who lined the bush to which he drew them, and some fell in their gallant exertions. Among them was private James Fergus, whose arm was pierced by a ball which passed through the left breast and out near the spine below the heart. He died in camp soon after the action. Private Patrick Conroy, a cool and brave soldier, fired at a Kaffir more than 300 yards away and killed him. Private John Arthur came in contact with one in passing round a bush, and in a personal conflict laid him dead at his feet; and private Robert M‘Intosh, whilst in the act of ramming home a cartridge, saw a Hottentot about to fire at him, but not having time to withdraw the ramrod capped and fired, and the ramrod passed through his opponent’s body. Lance-corporal Hosick Cowen and privates Charles Foot and Thomas Brooking were wounded; the last severely.